Rio Akasaka

Rio is a seasoned Product Manager at Google with an extensive background in tech, user-centered design and a true passion for accessibility. His main focus is developing and maintaining a clutter-free web experience according to strict web standards, cutting-edge technology, and cross-browser compatibility ever since 2000. His work at Google has taken him across the world from Tokyo, Japan to Zurich, Switzerland and eventually to Boulder, US, where he is currently based. Prior to that, Rio worked as a User-Interface Engineer and a Web Developer. During his career, he shipped features in ads (YouTube), consumer (Google Maps), and enterprise (Google Drive) and was responsible for deep product integrations with 3rd parties, metrics, experiment analysis and building strong relationships with ads sales teams. Moreover, with extensive experience in Photoshop, CSS and web standards, he has particular expertise in blogging platforms and content management systems. Rio earned his Bachelor degree from Swarthmore University with a double major in Engineering and Linguistics and a Masters degree from Stanford University in Computer Science with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction. On top of his successful academic and professional endeavors, Rio also used to be a volunteer firefighter and today he is an avid cyclist, photographer, and a self-published author.